Since i hav'nt run it at full temp yet, just really hot tap water, i dont know of its performance yet, but if the brew gods are nice to me, ill be using it this weekend.
Beer bear: On the keggle, the bottom lip/skirt kind of collects the heat and disperses it out of holes in it. When i had my fitting welded in I made sure it wasn't near one of these so i don't think heat should be too much of a problem.
Sean: I just plan to run some PBW through the SG and give it a quick run through with my dip tube cleaner brush, then run star san or Iodaphor through it, should be all thats needed.
The reason I wanted to do site gauges was that i didn't want to have to rely on a piece of pipe for measuring that i had to stick in and sanitize each time i wanted to measure. This way I can just glance at it (hopefully) and be able to tell how much i have instantly. That and when it gets boiling, its tough to se how much is in there boiling (i know approx how much in my mind). The only other thing i want to add to my HLT is another 1/2 welded fitting so i can thread a thermo into it.
At TBC we use the vinyl tubing for our HLT and MT, and it seems to be holing up fine. Yeah it gets a little soft when it gets warmed up, but I have never seen it give out or anything. The true test is going to be the SG on the boil kettle. I have a couple old broken racking canes i can attach to it if the hose fails.
Will keep everyone posted on how it works.
-Crut
Oh and TMB, I got your package today. Im still using my parents adress so when madre called, she laughed because it was addressed to "crut"
